Snake Agent
10. Snake Agent by Liz Williams (Mystery, Fantasy, Science Fiction) 267 p.
Detective Inspector Chen Wei is Singapore Three’s snake agent, the police officer who deals with the city’s supernatural crimes. He is approached by the wife of a prominent citizen whose daughter, a young girl who ought to be among the peach orchards of Heaven, has instead been photographed in Hell. Investigation at the funeral parlour shows that all Pearl’s paperwork seems to have been in order, her entry visa properly filed, so Chen has no doubt that something sinister is going on. He teams up with an agent from Hell’s Ministry of Vice, while his wife, Inari, deals with problems of her own.
Snake Agent isn’t quite like anything I’ve ever read before. It blends elements from a number of genres—mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror—into a cohesive whole. The story takes place in the near future, in a modern city, but with a background of Chinese Taoist culture and beliefs. While this isn’t the best book I’ve read recently, the sheer novelty of the setting and some of the characters more than made up for it, and there are even a few funny moments:
The ghost-tracker scuttled along, casting about itself with its long whiskers. Its claws clicked on the pavement. Passers-by took one look at Detective Inspector Chen hastening down the road with a lobster on a string, like one of the more eccentric French surrealists, and gave him a very wide berth. (85)
I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the next books in the series, The Demon and the City and Precious Dragon. (Frankly, the books in this series are worth buying for the cover art alone, which I loved as soon as I saw Carl V.’s recommendation—not surprising, since they’re drawn by Jon Foster, who is probably my favourite cover artist ever.)
Pages read: 3,195
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Detective Inspector Chen, Liz Williams, Unread Authors Challenge, What's in a Name?, World Lit Challenge
